When you think about having your first child, so many ideas, thoughts, hopes, and dreams run through your mind. You imagine what they will look like, what their personality will be like, and what they will grow up to do in this world. You don't think about giving birth over two months early. You don't imagine seeing your child for an instant and then having him whisked away because he needs machines to help him breathe. You don't imagine leaving the hospital without your little bundle of joy. But, such is the way life goes sometimes, these things happen... and they happen more often than most people know.
Our son, Miles, was born at 31.5 weeks. A completely normal, healthy pregnancy up to this point, he was due in April and came in February instead. One day we were chugging along blissfully setting up for our family to grow by a member and the next I was being admitted to the hospital. My water had broken, the baby was fine but sitting breech and the only thing I could do was be still and wait and pray he held still as well. For those of you who know Miles, sitting still was not something he would do (then or now!). The morning of Thursday, February 5th, 2015, they couldn't hold my labor off any longer and it was time for an emergency C-section.
The first time I saw my son was in a picture on my husband’s cell phone. My initial reaction was that he looked just like a Fournier! (My father’s side of the family.) I was out of it with the drugs I had been given but the doctors and nurses kept asking me if I could hear my boy from the other room. I tried so hard to hear him and finally I could hear him YELLING at the top of his lungs. (Yup, definitely my kid!) It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard and as I started crying tears of joy, I knew, without a doubt, this kid is a fighter.
The first two weeks of his life were spent in the NICU. We went from a CPAP to intubation, back to CPAP, to a high flow cannula, and finally we made it to the victorious low flow. He was under the lights due to jaundice for a few days and he had IVs and monitors coming from everywhere. The isolette kept him nice and cozy and made sure he didn’t have to use the little energy he had to keep his own temperature up. Because he needed the help with breathing and temperature and whatnot, it was a few days before I could even hold him. Throughout the whole ordeal, waiting to hold him was the absolute worst part.
Those two weeks felt like an eternity. But time passed, and Miles grew stronger. The nurses had given him the nickname “Miles the Wonderboy” because he was doing better than could be expected given the circumstances. He gained weight and he was able to keep his blood oxygen levels up with the help of a low flow cannula so we were elated to be informed we were moving over to the Special Care Nursery. We spent two weeks there working on making sure he was gaining enough weight and eating on his own so he could go home. 30 days after birth, Miles the Wonderboy came home.
Miles is an extraordinary kid who had many obstacles very early in his life. He fought and thrived and is still making leaps and bounds over where he should be developmentally at this point. He inspires me. He makes me want to keep up with that unadultured joy of discovery and pure willpower.
We consider ourselves so very lucky. Of all the places this could’ve happened, it was Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. The care my son received from every nurse and doctor was incredible and I attribute a great deal of our success in bringing him home so quickly to that care. The tireless hours of caring for such tiny humans and the emotions and struggles that comes with, what I consider to be, the hardest job in the world was just another day for these angels. Blend the gratitude I feel towards Children’s Hospital and the inspiration I gained from my little boy and here I am. Training to run a marathon. My first. I haven’t even so much as run a half marathon to date, but I know I can accomplish this. I WILL do this in effort to raise funds for an organization that has been the difference in so many families’ lives, an organization that provides top level care and hope to many families that have a much larger uphill battle than ours. More personally, I WILL do this for my son. I am running for Miles.
Thank you, sincerely, for your support. xoxo
